This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm an ex-mayor. Los Angeles is a magnet for people from all over the world. Some of them run for public office. Inevitably some of them stray from the golden rule and rule for those that have the gold. That's when I go to work. My name is Yorty. I'm a dead pol.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Battle Time Nearing to Protect the Southwest Museum

I have just heard that another rat on the slime boat of City Hall, the Autry Museum, has gotten the City to schedule a meeting of the Board of Referred Powers to hear Autry's application to expand its building on taxpayer land in Griffith Park. This is the extremely controversial proposal of the Autry to build a new wing to enable it to swallow the historic Southwest Museum an destroy the separate institution of the Southwest.

Now get this Ron, I heard it is scheduled for June 16, 2009 at City Hall at 9:00 a.m. -- one hour before a Wednesday City Council meeting. I was at the other public hearing in August last year on this issue. There were so many people there the testimony before the Planning Department took 4 hours.

Is the City Council really so arrogant and out of touch that they will try to limit the testimony in opposition to the Autry's destruction of the Southwest Museum to like 50 minutes? Does the City's first museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, warrant just 50 lousy minutes of time of our City Council when Billy the Elephant got days of testimony?

I saw where Carmen Trutanich asked Council to delay the billboard ordinance until he could review. Here's another issue that is a hint of how this Mayor and this City Council has lost its way and needs review by the new City Attorney. To give serious consideration to the Autry's blatant breach of merger agreement promises with the Southwest Museum is PROOF that pay to play and utter corruption of our City's political process is complete.

The possible unnecessary loss of the Southwest Museum using campaign contributions and three registered lobbyists paid for by the Autry demonstrates that there is nothing sacred that this Mayor and some Council Members will not flush down the toilet for their own personal political ambition. Our City Hall is very very sick.

Let's try "F...ing disgrace!!

Everyone who cares about protecting our civic and cultural history should call Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilman Huizar and the members of the Board of Referred Powers, to demand that a public hearing, with ample public testimony time be schedule so that the concerns of the public are fully vetted.

The Friends of the Southwest Museum has a war chest of funds to sue the City if the City Council, in its usual caving to campaign contributors, votes to knowingly violate the law to approve the Autry expansion. If this City Council has no backbone. If this City Council still thinks it can operate business as usual with George Milsten and Bill Delvac pulling the stings of Council, it is just one more reason why the people of Los Angeles are going to have to step in to change City Hall.

The Friends of the Southwest Museum has behind it about 70 community organizations, civil rights groups, Native American advocates, and a growing list of neighborhood councils. The Autry supporters are persons "bought off" by the Autry with some quid pro quo.

One wonders if Autry will pay clueless people in T-shirts to come to the City Council hearing like the Home Depot hearings in Sunland. After all, Latham and Watkins was advising Home Depot and Latham is representing Autry in this filthy and reprehensible effort to pillage the Southwest Museum solely for the benefit of the Autry's standing in the museum world.

People can go to the Friends of the Southwest Museum website to register their email to receive email alerts on hearings and protests of the Mayor and Council members if this moves forward.www.friendsofthesouthwestmuseum.com

I live in Mount Washington and I do not understand how Ed Reyes, who grew up in this area, can be silent on this issue. Part of the Southwest Museum is in Ed Reyes' district. I see alot of people appalled with Jose Huizar rolling over for Tom LaBonge and Mayor, but nobody is calling out Reyes for his weak response to this outrage.

There are some issues that require people to stand up and be counted. Reyes apparently has not paid attention to the recent municipal elections: people are pissed at this business as usual crap at City Hall.

I wish every body would leave mary cummins alone. I don't remember her ever posting here and now that she has a stole bundle of the city's cash, nothing else is going on with that and you are persecuting her like zooma.

The Friends of the SW have no one to blame but themselves. They put all their eggs in one flimsy, broken basket and promised then-mayoral candidate Villaraigosa to support him for mayor four years ago.

Worse, they even held fundraisers for him.

Worst of all, they agreed... AGREED to muffle themselves with the press at a time when this was still something the media gave a rodent's derriere about, in exchange for Villaraigosa's always unreliable "promise" to hold Autry's feet to the fire.

Right up there on the magazine cover next to AV's picture, behind FAILURE should be a small inset photo of the SW "Friends," who FAILED to think of community over the latest politician and his next campaign.

Following on the heels of AV's vapid, useless two years as the CD 14 councilmember, complete with his fake neighborhood watches will next be the:

80 VACANT CITY MUSEUMSServes you right, you AV toadies in Mount Washington. Whatever happened to "speak truth to authority," you bunch of tired, washed up Sixties radicals? Did you trade in your healthy sense of skepticism for a bag of AV's magic beans? Did you honestly believe you hometown "boy" that he would do right by you, as he circulated his campaign slicks with the picture of the SW tower in the background?

You should have learned a lesson for your other neighbor, now his ex-wife, that he's always "just passing through!"

1232, what you are talking about? She's been stalking people on this blog and elsewhere around the www for years. I don't know if it's mary cummins, mary cummins-cobb or mary cummings or mary villaraigosa, but the only words that come to mind when that name comes up is Con Artiste